It has become increasingly desirable to improve the overall system design and operation of gas turbines. In a system having a typical gas turbine engine, electrical power is extracted via an electrical generator to supply electrical power to platform loads, such as control systems, actuators, weapons systems, climate control systems, and the like. Electrical storage, such as a battery, is typically provided to operate such systems when the gas turbine engine is not running or to provide power for starting the gas turbine engine. In some known gas turbine engines, the gas turbine engine includes a high pressure shaft and a lower pressure shaft, and the electrical generator is coupled to one of the high and low pressure shafts.
Typically, strategies for controlling a system, having a gas turbine engine and electric generators driven by each shaft of the engine, include treating the engine and the generators as separate systems. That is, their respective control systems operate without knowledge of or interaction with each other. This can lead to treating cross-coupling effects between the gas turbine engine and electric generators as disturbances. For systems using relatively larger electric motors/generators capable of additional electrical power generation and motoring, this approach can lead to controller conflicts and will result in suboptimal control of the system.
Overcoming these concerns is desirable and will save the industry substantial resources.